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166 E.Calliari et al.
by high degrees of complexity and feed-back effects, state interactions are daily
occurrencesinanumberofrealms, includingsociety,economy,politicsandtechnol-
ogy. These interactions are fuelled by specific state preferences (as determined by
domesticactors),withoutwhichastatewouldnothaveanyincentivetoengageinthe
internationalcontext.Liberalist lensesare thususeful to investigatehowasymmetry
betweenstates’preferencesaffectL&Doutcomes.
Finally, constructivismisa relatively recent theoreticalparadigm,challenging in
manyaspectsbothrealistandliberal theoriesinexplaininginternationalnegotiations
andpowerrelations.What fundamentallydistinguishesconstructivismfromthefor-
mer schools of thought is its ontological assumptionof theworld as being socially
constructed. Thismeans, asHurd (2008) puts it, that “howpeople and states think
andbehaveinworldpolitics ispremisedontheirunderstandingof theworldaround
them,whichincludestheirownbeliefsabouttheworld, theidentities theyholdabout
themselves andothers, and the shared understandings andpractices inwhich they
participate”.Oneof themost important contributionsof constructivism is showing
thatnormsmatter (Price2008)and thusethical and legal standardsare important in
guidingworldpolitics (Snyder2004).
We suggest all these viewpoints are necessary to understandL&Dnegotiations.
In the following sections we apply such competing theories to the L&D case by
assuming the particular perspective of small island states,AOSISbeing theirmost
proactiveproponenton theL&Dissue.
6.4.1 Neorealism
Intermsofaggregatepower,AOSIS—acoalitionofsocially,economicallyandenvi-
ronmentallyvulnerablesmall islandnations—wouldbedefinedasalow-poweractor
ininternationalnegotiations.Itsmembersarehometolessthan1%oftheworldpop-
ulation; thesumoftheir39GDPsequals theannualeconomyofthecityofLondon5;
andalmosthalfofthestateshavenoorlimitedarmedforces(Barbey2015).Yet,such
traditional indicatorsofpowermight explain little in a specificbargaining situation
likeclimatenegotiations.Inthissetting,two“issue-specificpower”resourcesacquire
particular relevance:delegationsizeandcapacity.Botharereflectionsofacountry’s
GDP.Thesizeofnationalbudgets influences thenumberofpersonnelandexperts in
thegovernment and theministriesbackhome that candevelopnational negotiation
positions, aswell as the sizeof thedelegations (Panke2012).Developingcountries
oftencannotaffordtosendbignegotiatingteamstoCOPs,andsomeinitiativeshave
beenput inplace inresponse to that.Oneof themis theTrustFundforParticipation
in theUNFCCC establishedunder theConvention,which is nevertheless basedon
limitedanddecreasingvoluntarycontributionsandcanonlysupportaroundtwoaddi-
tionaldelegatespereligibledevelopingParty(UNFCCC2016).Thesecircumstances
inevitablyhamperdevelopingcountries’fullparticipationinthenegotiationprocess.
5Owncalculationsbasedon theWorldDevelopment Indicatorsby theWorldBank (2015).
Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Titel
- Loss and Damage from Climate Change
- Untertitel
- Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Autoren
- Reinhard Mechler
- Laurens M. Bouwer
- Thomas Schinko
- Swenja Surminski
- JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-72026-5
- Abmessungen
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 580
- Schlagwörter
- Environment, Climate change, Environmental law, Environmental policy, Risk management
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima